zompist bboard

Feel free to do this in any language.

A cracked.com article ran a segment about words you hate because of their sound. While some are debatable, like "rural," and others are universally hated, like "ointment," and "pulp," this list is small so I'm asking you, if you could expand it, what words would you add?

Myself, I'd add "poop" and "poopy." It's just a terrible word for something that we'd rather not discuss anyway. I also hate the words "lube" and "boobies" for the same reason as "poop," ie. I have an aversion to [u:], especially when followed by [i:]. I also hate "pussy" and "pansy," probably because of the initial [p]+V+C. Some others are "mold" and "moldy." I also hate the name "Mildred" and the word "mildew" I probably have an aversion to [m]+V+[5d]. Another is 'davenport," which is just an ugly word for sofa/couch and "afro" which I just hate, and I can't forget "secrete" which is a mouthful of a word to say and "incense" which sounds too much like another terrible word, "incest." The last few I'd add are "registration" and "registrar" and "register." I often I mix "registration" with "resignation" and just generally dislike "registrar" and "register." Finally, "catastrophe" as I often put the stress on it incorrectly and have to correct myself.

Viktor77 wrote:A cracked.com article ran a segment about words you hate because of their sound. While some are debatable, like "rural," and others are universally hated, like "ointment," and "pulp," this list is small so I'm asking you, if you could expand it, what words would you add?

Huh? What's wrong with "ointment" and "pulp"? In Spanish, pulpo is one of my favourite words to say!

Indeed, pulp is one of my favorite words. Ointment is just kinda funny. I dislike loogie and stogie.

I hate "snack"

It sounds like it should be in a Slavic language and should stay there. It sounds so bad in English OMG.

Let's just call them "feastlets" or "banqueties"

Nannalu wrote:I hate "snack"

It sounds like it should be in a Slavic language and should stay there. It sounds so bad in English OMG.

Let's just call them "feastlets" or "banqueties"

I love the word "snack"! How does it sound Slavic? Do "snake" and "snook" sound Slavic to you as well? "Feastlets" sounds a bit disgusting. "Banqueties" is cute tho.

äreo wrote:I love the word "snack"! How does it sound Slavic? Do "snake" and "snook" sound Slavic to you as well? "Feastlets" sounds a bit disgusting. "Banqueties" is cute tho.

banqueties sounds so terribly, horribly bourgeois

äreo wrote:

Nannalu wrote:I hate "snack"

It sounds like it should be in a Slavic language and should stay there. It sounds so bad in English OMG.

Let's just call them "feastlets" or "banqueties"

I love the word "snack"! How does it sound Slavic? Do "snake" and "snook" sound Slavic to you as well? "Feastlets" sounds a bit disgusting. "Banqueties" is cute tho.

It's the [ak]. Snook sounds a lot more Eskimo. Snake just sounds Germanic.

No one's mentioned moist yet? I don't have a problem with it, personally, but I hear people complain about it fairly often.

Matt wrote:No one's mentioned moist yet? I don't have a problem with it, personally, but I hear people complain about it fairly often.

Neither do I, but I hear the same.

Viktor77 wrote:Feel free to do this in any language.

A cracked.com article ran a segment about words you hate because of their sound. While some are debatable, like "rural," and others are universally hated, like "ointment," and "pulp," this list is small so I'm asking you, if you could expand it, what words would you add?

Myself, I'd add "poop" and "poopy." It's just a terrible word for something that we'd rather not discuss anyway. I also hate the words "lube" and "boobies" for the same reason as "poop," ie. I have an aversion to [u:], especially when followed by [i:]. I also hate "pussy" and "pansy," probably because of the initial [p]+V+C. Some others are "mold" and "moldy." I also hate the name "Mildred" and the word "mildew" I probably have an aversion to [m]+V+[5d]. Another is 'davenport," which is just an ugly word for sofa/couch and "afro" which I just hate, and I can't forget "secrete" which is a mouthful of a word to say and "incense" which sounds too much like another terrible word, "incest." The last few I'd add are "registration" and "registrar" and "register." I often I mix "registration" with "resignation" and just generally dislike "registrar" and "register." Finally, "catastrophe" as I often put the stress on it incorrectly and have to correct myself.

I agree with ointment, pulp, poop(y), lube, boobies, pussy, pansy, mold(y)* and incense (for the same reason).
*It's even worse in Swedish: mögel.

linguoboy wrote:In Spanish, pulpo is one of my favourite words to say!

*shudders* I once saw a picture that involved a woman and an octopus, and it had some Spanish title with the word "pulpo" in it.

I have to agree with 'rural', and anything else with too many Rs in it...

It's really very hard for me to find a word in English that I simply dont like the sound of, though there are some words that could be made more beautiful to suit their meaning. "Fetus" is the only one I can think of offhand. It just doesnt blend well with any English sentence.

*shudders* I once saw a picture that involved a woman and an octopus, and it had some Spanish title with the word "pulpo" in it.

Pulp is a word for the soft parts of the fingertips, so it could be the tips of the arms of the octopus? Just a guess, I didnt look it up or anything.

Soap wrote:

*shudders* I once saw a picture that involved a woman and an octopus, and it had some Spanish title with the word "pulpo" in it.

Pulp is a word for the soft parts of the fingertips, so it could be the tips of the arms of the octopus? Just a guess, I didnt look it up or anything.

Pulpo is the Spanish word for "octopus". (Or at least the kind that ends up in tapas.)

[ˈtʰɪmpm̩] <Timpen> (dialectal word my dad uses for 'tip' of e.g. a piece of cloth)
[ˈkʰafə] <Kaffee> (the proper pronunciation of the beverage is [ˈkʰafe]. The other sounds disgusting.)

"Oil" sounds ghastly, at least in the regional dialects around here. I hate hearing rural too. Basically anything that has a lot of the English r and dark l sounds in it. Also 'scratched'. It just stumbles out of your mouth, it doesn't flow at all.

linguoboy wrote:

Soap wrote:Pulp is a word for the soft parts of the fingertips, so it could be the tips of the arms of the octopus? Just a guess, I didnt look it up or anything.

Pulpo is the Spanish word for "octopus". (Or at least the kind that ends up in tapas.)

Pulpo, and Catalan pop/polp, Asturian pulpu, Galician polpo, Sicilian purpu, etc. come from Latin poly̆pus, from Greek πολύπους "of many feet".

On the other hand, and according to the OED, English pulp comes from Latin pulpa, which is the soft part of a body. So pulpa and poly̆pus doesn't share a common original root, regardless of their similarities.

Yes, I know, we weren't speaking about etymologies, but I like 'em!

I hate rural too. But if there's a word like it in Spanish or Catalan, I can imagine it sounding easier to say, because the /r/ sounds are easier in succession that way, at least for me.

Yeah, I should have thought of polyp first, since we have that word too (though in another sense; not everyone knows that it can mean a sea creature). I think in the original Metroid there was a creature named Polyp.

Polyp and rural are beautiful words to me.

Viktor77 wrote:Myself, I'd add

Mildred, I don’t care how much incense you put in your afro, when you show your moldy catastrophe boobies, it makes me secrete poop on the davenport.

Soap wrote:Yeah, I should have thought of polyp first, since we have that word too (though in another sense; not everyone knows that it can mean a sea creature). I think in the original Metroid there was a creature named Polyp.

Polyp and rural are beautiful words to me.

Polyp is pretty, but rural only sounds good if it has the FORCE vowel (or with a preserved poor/pour distinction). I've heard some people use the NURSE vowel, as well as with sure, pure, etc. which sounds awful to me.

Any word in American English that has [?n=].

äreo wrote:

Soap wrote:Yeah, I should have thought of polyp first, since we have that word too (though in another sense; not everyone knows that it can mean a sea creature). I think in the original Metroid there was a creature named Polyp.

Polyp and rural are beautiful words to me.

Polyp is pretty, but rural only sounds good if it has the FORCE vowel (or with a preserved poor/pour distinction). I've heard some people use the NURSE vowel, as well as with sure, pure, etc. which sounds awful to me.

I have a CURE vowel... none of this pansy reduction of vowels before /r/s and all that!

The problem is my R is often labialised and so is final L if it's vocalised, so it comes out as [ɻʷʉːɻʷəw] or [ɻʷʉːwəw] and makes me sound like a child.

I pronounce rural something like [ʁʁ̩ˤʷːʟ]. It looks terrible and sounds the same.

Nobody hates "world"?

I loathe "Skype". It sounds like all those nasty /sk-/ words, like scrape, scalp, scrap, scam, scathe, &c., as well as "rape", "snipe", and some other unpleasant /-p/ words, like snap, trap, rip, trip, &c., and also manages to end up sounding a lot like "spike".
I mean, /#sk/ is pretty generally sharp, and I've always found /ai/ somewhat harsh and icy, so the combo doesn't end up pretty. Were I unaware of the word's meaning, I would assume "skyping" someone involved a pointed implement of some sort.